A Dogs Life
by polyptera
Summary: I never believed in reincarnation... I guess that's why I didn't have too much karma stored up for the next life. Four legs and a tail though? I can work with that. Naruto SI


**A Dogs Life** \- _I never believed in reincarnation... I guess that's why I didn't have too much karma stored up for the next life. Four legs and a tail though? I can work with that. Naruto SI_

* * *

I can't tell you much about the moment of my death, I think the last thing I remember was strutting down rodeo drive in a wispy dress that positively fluttered in the breeze. I'm sure I was with someone.. but those last moments are hazy, I feel like there were some whispered words that sometimes flicker across my mind.. perhaps a kiss? If there was it would've been my last.

I will spare the details of my rebirth.. suffice to say that it wasn't pleasant and I'll be eternally grateful that I was a bit too disoriented to understand much of what was happening. Afterwards though? There was just a feeling on contentment, full bellies, nursing off my mother and the baffling wiggling and squirming of other all over me. When I pulled my mind together enough to wonder what on earth was going on I could never quite figure it out.. was I being trampled by a never ending heard of anteaters?

The full weight of the situation began to hit me in what I guess was about three weeks after my rebirth.. it was about then that I managed to open my eyes for the first time. The world was blurry.. but alive with shades of brown. Something next to me moved, one of the warm squirmy anteaters that so often stepped on me or over me or just collapsed in a sleepy heap on my wheezing body. It rolled towards me and crashed into my face and I it occurred to me that the uncomfortable sensation in my eye was the feeling of hair.. or perhaps fur. What kind of mother leaves the dog out next to her baby? I wish I could say I had a dramatic reaction.. but life in a fur heap is comfortable and I fell back asleep blinking till there was nothing left under my eyelids but eye.

Every day after that was filled with sleeping, eating and a new curiosity about the world around me. My eyes slowly cleared up and it wasn't long before I discovered the anteaters were in fact small wiggling puppies.. and though I say small they were in fact bigger than me. It's not anything strange, there's a runt in every litter and runt pug is especially small. That's right, four stumpy legs and a smashed in face... I was a pug and of course so were my six wiggling siblings and my surprisingly attentive parents.

I had a mom and a dad... which struck me as odd.. but it wasn't anything I was going to fight over. My dad was tough looking.. he had a long scar running across his back and bandages wrapped around his legs protectively. My mother was a bit less aggressive, she had a single bandage wrapped and tied in a baffling bow around her left back leg and very tired expression. They spoke too.. and it was startling to discover I understood.. not at first but it was like something in me was waking up and barks and growls and ear flickers became a language of their own. A slight whine from my mother with an light uplift at the end? She wanted to know if I was alright. And if my father pulled just one ear back a bit he was expressing utter bafflement with our antics.

My siblings were growing faster and smarter than I was, they had more energy that I did and they ran and played while I worked on walking and sniffing. They never left me out though, it was strange and yet it felt so right. We were a pack, we looked out for each other.. they always pushed their runty brother to the best suckling spot and they piled around me to keep me warm, I was never on the outside of the heap. Life was good.

It was almost idyllic and I could happily let go of who I had been... I didn't need to be a two legger... this carefree life was better and safer. Almost.. everything was perfect until that moment...

Laying at the bottom of the heap surrounded by the snorts and wheezes of my siblings and the rumblings of my parents I dozed and ate until I felt something. An incessant tugging at my abdomen, strong and consistent I felt a tight sensation I couldn't fight against and I was gone.

Out in the open air with no pack around me just a strange sensation, a connection to the small two legger leaning over me his hand flat against the ground by my head. He was a bit runty as far as two leggers went with gravity defying silver hair and just as the name _Kakashi_ whipped through my mind I heard him say that fateful word.

 _Pakkun._


End file.
